30 Rock Co-Stars, NBC React To Tracy Morgan Controversy

Fellow 30 Rock star Tina Fey expressed her disapproval of Tracy Morgan's now infamous homophobic rant, which she called "disturbing." She also comes to his defense saying that he is not hateful. In his apology yesterday, Morgan also stressed that he was not "hateful." Her statement to TMZ:

"I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to 'work out' their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community. It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person. I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at '30 Rock,' without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket. The other producers and I pride ourselves on '30 Rock' being a diverse, safe, and fair workplace."

Another 30 Rock co-star, Alec Baldwin, reacted to the controversy. He tweeted: "No one's making excuses for Tracy."

Openly gay NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt issued this statement:

"I speak for NBC and myself personally when I say we do not condone hate or violence of any kind and I am pleased to see Tracy Morgan apologizing for recent homophobic remarks in his standup appearance.  We will always recognize an artist's freedom to express him or herself, but not when reckless things are said no matter what the context.  Unfortunately, Tracy's comments reflect negatively on both "30 Rock" and NBC - two very all-inclusive and diverse organizations - and we have made it clear to him that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

Entertainment Weekly reports that fellow comic Chris Rock defended Morgan's rant: “I dont know about you, but I dont want to live in world where Tracy Morgan cant say foul inappropriate s—.” GLAAD tweeted back: “Language about stabbing kids for being gay isn’t ‘foul.’ It’s dangerous.”

The Human Rights Campaign believes Morgan should do more than just apologize: “Tracy Morgan exercised extremely poor judgment and he did the right thing by apologizing. But that’s just not enough. He’s a role model and Morgan now has a responsibility to make amends for his horribly hurtful and dangerous ‘comedy’ routine. He also needs to go further than his apology and correct the record: no one should feel ashamed because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and they should definitely not become a victim of violence. Words have consequences and Morgan should be held to a higher standard. Until he does something meaningful, his brand will remain tarnished.”

Watch: Tina Fey's Sarah Palin Returns

Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live last night and brought along her Sarah Palin ensemble for a reenactment of one of her most famous impersonations. The skit, a segment on Republican presidential candidates, features several great laugh-out loud moments mostly due to Fey's Palin and Kristen Wiig's Michelle Bachmann.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP.

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #880

TINA FEY: Her hour-long interview with Google' Eric Schmidt.

KATE BUSH: The new video for her track "Deeper Understanding".

PRISCILLA: The cast performs on The View.

MICHELE BACHMANN: A compilation of her ridiculous statements.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

GLAAD Media Awards Presented In NYC

The  22nd annual GLAAD Media Award were held in New York last night and big winners included Ricky Martin, Russell Simmons, Scissor Sisters, Anderson Cooper and True Blood. More awards will be handed out in Los Angeles on April 10 and in San Francisco on May 14.

Martin was this year's recipient of the this year's Vito Russo Award, which each year goes to an openly gay member of the entertainment community who has worked to combat homophobia.

Reuters reports on Martin's speech:

"I just want to be free. I can say, today I am free," the Puerto Rican singer said at New York's Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards, which recognize the best portrayals of gay community members in film, television, radio, music, newspapers and blogs.

Martin, the 39 year-old singer of hits such as his 1999 single "Livin' la Vida Loca" who has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, revealed he was gay in 2010 after more than a decade in the international spotlight. His coming-out included a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey and since then, he has been heralded as a gay role model, especially for Latin Americans. Martin thanked his parents and boyfriend before urged the audience to "let's go Latin America and let's share the love."

AFTER THE JUMP, a full list of last year's winners as well as a clip of Martin's acceptance speech, courtesy of Boy Culture.

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TSA: New Jersey lawmakers take on the TSA!

TINA FEY: Anderson Cooper puts PBS on his "Ridicu-list" for censoring Fey's Palin remarks.

BOYS IN BEAUTY PAGEANT: Joy Behar looks at the male JonBenets of the world.

NO YAWNING: I'm impressed that the class stood by one another. Where's Spicoli when you need him?

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

PBS Edits Tina Fey Criticisms of Sarah Palin on Rape Kits, Gay Marriage, Evolution from Awards Broadcast

PBS insists it was not a political decision to edit a portion of Tina Fey's remarks from its broadcast of her speech at the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Awards on Sunday night, saying that the broadcast went 19 minutes over.

The remarks dealt with her impersonation of Sarah Palin:

"And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women - except, of course --those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape 'kit 'n' stuff. But for everybody else, it's a win-win. Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know - actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster."

Watch a portion of Fey's remarks (the edited part starts at around 12:30), AFTER THE JUMP...